Service Placements
Each of our interns are placed at a social service organization for the duration of the program. You will find potential service placements for the summer of 2024 below. Please note that placements are not limited to the following organizations. New listings will be added as we confirm our partnerships for this year.
Tyndale St. Georges Community Centre
About the Organisation
Since 1927, Tyndale St. George Community Centre has provided empowering educational programming for residents of Little Burgundy from birth through adulthood.
Located in the Southwest of Montreal, five minutes from the downtown core, Little Burgundy is a vibrant and diverse community that, unfortunately, faces challenges related to poverty, racism, and gentrification. There are over 11,000 residents with 37% as recent immigrants, 66% of children and youth living below the poverty line, 46.5% of families are headed by a single parent, 32% of Little Burgundy students drop out before finishing high school, and the neighbourhood has the highest concentration of low-income housing in Quebec.
Tyndale St. Georges envisions the community where there are opportunities for growth and involvement, and access to information and resources; everyone's potential is recognized and achieved; diversity is celebrated, and people feel respected, supported and cared for.
About the Placement
A service placement at Tyndale St. Georges might include:
Work in the senior and adult centre facilitating and animating stimulating mental exercises for clients, or supporting clients with job searches and employment development.
Work in the Children & Youth Camp planning and animating socio-recreation activities to teach development skills, facilitating conflict resolution and promoting positive behaviour, mentoring Counselors-in-training and integrating volunteers, designing and implementing camp activities, developing positive relationships with children, parents, staff, and volunteers, and supporting camp activities administratively.
Le Pont
About the Organisation
Le Pont is a shelter and services centre for refugee claimants who have recently arrived in Quebec.
We want to offer vulnerable people (single women, single parents, families) temporary housing that is safe, family-friendly, rich in services and exchanges, and that promotes the reception and integration of refugee claimants in Quebec and Canada.
We offer a personalized follow-up of each family's situation and refer them to appropriate community and government organizations. We ensure that our beneficiaries have access to adequate administrative and health services, have applied for their work permits, looked for a place to live, enrolled their children in school; that they are, in general, ready to settle in Quebec.
About the Placement
A service placement at Le Pont might include:
Being a warm and steady presence while accompanying refugee claimants and their families to appointments, and outings, and navigating the various systems in Canada
Representing and supporting the rights of the refugee claimants during outings and appointments when discrimination and mistreatment occurs
Providing administrative support to refugee claimants in translation work, filling out forms, and registering for appointments
Supporting the staff members in delivering workshops and in connecting refugee claimants to additional wrap-around services
Designing and implementing new activities pending on the needs of the refugee claimants and skill-set of the MMI intern(s)
The Ministry to Seafarers
About the Organisation
Approximately 90% of all our material goods are sourced from other countries and transported to Canada via ship. Despite our reliance on seafaring, this aspect of our global supply chain remains largely invisible to the average Canadian. There are over 1.5 million seafarers around the world. The average crew on a merchant ship consists of 20 members who work around the clock in shifts - on average 12 hours per day every day of the week. Seafarers are typically out to sea and away from home for 6-9 months at a time. Many ships lack adequate telephone or Wi-Fi service, meaning that seafarers rely on time in port to contact friends and family.
While the work itself and the dangers inherent to life at sea are both challenging, the greatest challenge faced by seafarers is loneliness. Our work is in the harbour – it is a ministry of presence. Covering the full breadth of our 26 km port, our chaplains, staff, interns and volunteers strive daily to meet the seafarers where they are - whether on ship or shore – to assist them in accessing our city, to connect with our community and to receive spiritual or practical care as desired. We also work to bring visibility to the value and presence of seafarers in our city through engagement with our wider Montreal community.
About the Placement
A service placement at The Ministry to Seafarers might include:
Accompanying chaplains on ship visits to offer a listening ear, provide spiritual counsel, offer a Bible or devotional, or pray with and for the crew
Supporting Seafarers’ Centre in partnership with Mariners' House, where seafarers purchase necessities, enjoy recreational activities, receive the care they need, visit with others and rest.
Providing supplies to seafarers at Seafarers’ Centre such as warm clothing, SIM cards, and other necessities
Supporting transportation services for seafarers from port to city
Planning and coordinating recreational events and games for seafarers
Supporting access to justice and advocacy avenues on behalf of seafarers when they need their voices to be heard or feel they are not being treated fairly.
Hadley Community
About the Organisation
The Hadley Community is a non-denominational, LGBTQ2+ welcoming organisation that provides housing and support for individuals who struggle with mental illness, homelessness, addiction and trauma.
Their approach and methodology are recognized and respected as a preferred alternative to institutional care: helping those caught within the revolving door syndrome, or worse, the prospect of living on the streets, homeless.
Apart from housing, the Hadley Community also provides the following services, among others: yoga, art classes, interactive workshops, collective kitchens, clothing and hygiene products.
About the Placement:
A service placement at the Hadley Community might include
Creating a welcoming environment by accompanying residents in their activities
Assisting support workers in caring and meeting the needs of the residents
Supporting the kitchen in preparing and serving meals for residents
Leading and facilitating activities according to their unique skills, for example: music, art, sports, etc.
Réseau d’aide aux travailleuses et travailleurs migrants agricoles du Québec
About the Organisation
RATTMAQ is an organization that advocates for the rights of migrant agricultural and food processing workers in Quebec. Our main goal is to inform them of their rights, obligations, and responsibilities. Additionally, we aim to support them regarding immigration, health, education, and francization. We also aim to promote and defend their interests with the Quebec government as well as the federal government. Furthermore, we educate the public to foster and maintain a positive environment for the workers.
About the Placement:
*Please note, this role requires someone who either has basic Spanish or is willing to learn, and is fluent in either French or English.
A service placement at RATTMAQ might include
Welcoming and greeting migrant workers at the airport
Providing migrant workers with RATTMAQ resources
Documenting and registering migrant workers within the RATTMAQ database
Hosting social gatherings with the welcoming team to provide support and RATTMAQ resources to migrant workers
This role requires basic Spanish and must be fluent in either French or English
Jesuit Refugee Service Canada
About the Organisation:
According to Statistics Canada, over 92,000 asylum claimants were processed in 2022. But with over 100 million refugees around the world, as reported by the UN Refugee Agency, the work remains.
To respond to this on-going humanitarian crisis, the Society of Jesus coordinated with Rome a relief response in 1980. In 1981, a sponsorship program was started in Quebec. Then in 1985 the Jesuit Refugee Services in Canada was formed. The organization focuses in four areas: direct assistance to refugees, improving refugee policies and mechanisms, supporting refugees overseas, and educating the Canadian public.
About the Placement:
A service placement at the Jesuit Refugee Service might include:
Work in the area of education, developing the curriculum and providing support for A Journey into Exile, an online role-playing activity that puts participants into the shoes of refugees.
Work in the area of direct assistance, researching, planning, and organizing activities for newcomers, including a 1 week summer camp, and conducting home-visits to provide them with support and services.
Welcome Hall
About the Organisation:
Established in 1892, Welcome Hall Mission is the largest doorway to help for Montrealers in need. Programs and resources are available to support people experiencing homelessness, families living in precarity, young and single mothers, at-risk youth and the elderly.
About the Placement:
A service placement at the Welcome Hall might include
Support to the Admission Team / Welcome Hall Market (Marché Bon Accueil)
Various administrative tasks in support of client intake activities (phone calls, emails, updating of files, etc), and intake activities (greet and register members for their appointment)
Support Market activities (support the liaison officer; hand out food at window to members, assist with replenishing in Market)
Support delivery service (prepare documents for delivery team and operations team, write daily report on deliveries)
Telephone (make appointments, answer members’ enquiries about our services etc.), Email (answer members’ enquiries e.g. about appointments for the Market or for a delivery, appointments for our events, appointment for opening a file etc.)
All other related tasks (prepare the list for emergency groceries, prepare greeting coupons for Market appointments etc.).
Marché food distribution service
Provide great customer service to Marché clients
Take part in food distribution
Christian Direction
About the Organisation:
Motivated by the love of Jesus Christ and his desire to reconcile the world to himself, our mission is to pursue the transformation of people, families and their communities in the cities of Québec and the French-speaking world.
We work to nurture the whole Mission of God in our communities, cities, and province.
God is at work, but what is he doing? He is putting a divided, broken world back together again. His work is the work of reconciling people to himself, reconciling people to one another, and reconciling creation to its creator. As the People of God, we were meant to participate with God in this work of redeeming, reconciling, and renewing all things.
About the Placement:
A service placement at the Christian Direction might include
Urban agriculture and food security
Address issues of food insecurity and food justice which may include hands-on work at multiple urban gardens across the city, the solidarity market, and the kitchen and food transformation workshops
Connect, interact, and build meaningful relationships with residents and clients, who may be accessing the urban gardens and the services at the solidarity market, kitchen and food transformation workshops in an urban ministry context
Accompany young people (12-17 years old) in the maintenance of the urban gardens and the premises (water, collect crops and ensure the health of the garden), and support the personal growth of summer interns through the organizing of workshops
Communications and content creation
Assist Christian Direction and its ministries with their communications
Attend communications committee meetings
Visit ministries and take photos of their activities
Write short texts on activities for social media and assist with the layout of newsletters
Both roles will attend sessions with Urban Labs that helps to shape and engage young adults, namely those in employment or internship with Christian Direction, in their spiritual and missional journey.